ABC's rare hours of drama

Page Tools

The ABC's only Australian-made night-time drama series for 2005
is a ratings failure. MDA, repackaged this year into three
four-episode mini-series after a low-scoring debut in 2003, is
coming fourth in its Thursday time-slot and is one of the ABC's
lowest-rating prime-time shows of the week.

Only 615,823 viewers around Australia sampled the show's first
episode, including 195,279 in Melbourne.

The failure of MDA, a legal and medical drama, adds to
the ABC's other woes, including an 8 per cent decline in viewers
this year and a budget that has seen its local drama output cut
from more than 100 hours a year to under 20.

It is another bad sign for Australian TV drama. The Seven
Network's new show Last Man Standing drew only 133,000
viewers in Melbourne last week.

The ABC has also lost viewers of its twice-weekly airings of the
British police series, The Bill, one of the ABC's top
shows for years.

Another factor has been the absence of the local comedy series,
Kath & Kim, from the ABC's schedules. Last year, it
was the network's top show, averaging 1.83 million viewers
nationally each week.

The ABC confirmed on Friday that it had signed Kath &
Kim stars Gina Riley and Jane Turner to develop a 90-minute
special for screening before Christmas.